Why Spider-man Needs to Get a Life

Peter Parker, what has change with the character since he become Spider-man. Well here is the list of what has change about the character after Uncle Ben died:

1. ….he wore a black costume for a little while….

Yep, that is it. Nothing about the character direction has change since that fateful night. I am not downplaying the Death of Gwen Stacy, but it wasn’t exactly something new in Peter’s life. Comparative speaking Gwen’s Death just add more guilt. That’s about it. We have a character that hasn’t grown beyond being a teenager. Still have the same job, same problems, and same experiences. In other words, the character is in stasis. We have all experience the times when writer went outside of the box, and it was fun for the most part. The character must grow beyond that little box that Stan Lee and others wrote in because the character will die due to being reparative. Those that worked at DC need to remember what happen to Superman after there was no change. That character became a joke. The same can be said of Peter Parker. Make no mistake, Peter Parker and not Spider-man is the interesting focus that kept us reading the book.

Peter Parker life hasn’t change since getting his degree (unless that has been Mephisto out too). We feel that Peter Parker needs to move beyond that little box that Stan started with in the 60’s. Let the character grow (I don’t mean age so shut up about that) and be organic. Peter needs to move on with his life and not stay the same forever. That is what used to be Marvel’s promise to the readers. This character will not be the same old thing all the time. We need to be honest here; is keeping the character mired in the past ideas really the best thing to draw more readers in?

People over the years have changes. They are more informed and more knowledgeable about what is going on. If the Braintrust was honest with themselves, they would admit this about their readers. People that are interested in Spider-man are going to go on the Internet. They will see what is being said about Amazing Spider-man. They will also see how vocal the people are about this current direction in the book. Some may decide to pick up the book or they may not. They will be informed about the direction and all that has been done.
Back to the characters, Peter should be trying to better his future. Why you ask? That is the core of the character. He has a desire to be better every day of his life or he wouldn’t be Spider-man in the first place. The writer’s mistake is that we want the same old Peter until the book is cancelled forever. To put this basically we need this to happen in order for more readers to be drawn to the book:

1. Peter gets a job that uses his degree.
2. Peter gets a life beyond being Spider-man.
3. Peter really needs be on his own.
4. Peter needs to grow up.

: Now before One More Day, that is the direction we were moving. Most of it was done to undo the marriage, but they found something the draw readers to the book. We like seeing Peter happy for a while. We liked that this was covering new ground beyond the same old stories. While the marriage was used a lot, the marriage was used correctly in the book. Some may not like the Other, Sins of the Past, or other things that happen in JMS run; it had a lot more people taking positive about the book. We debated what happen with rancor about certain stories compare to what is currently being offered by the Braintrust. This is what I mean by they lack style and the touch to tell good Spider-man stories.

In the last 2 years, the writers flatly refused to explain the effects of the deal. Why? Seriously why? I really don’t get the concept of keeping the reading in the dark this long about the effects of the deal or what happen to all the characters. We just get this little things that make no sense or effects that hurt the character. Face facts, Norman Osborn is most powerful man in Marvel Universe right now and Spider-man’s world barely has been touched. I thought Norman was Spider-man villain. It would have been a better story if Norman knew Peter’s secret identity. Now, that is the Parker Luck.

We seen too many hit and miss with the writing of Amazing Spider-man to be called anything beyond failure. It is a failure to bring new reader. Hello, it has been 2 years and the numbers haven’t changed if you want to use the distbution numbers. I know for a fact where I live that Amazing Spider-man is going more in the 50 cent bin than out the door when it is released. We know there are some that like the book, which is good for them, but this current direction of the character, has damaged the character for those that have read the book for the characters and not to read stories that have been done before a long time ago. The execution of the character development has been nil. There has been absolutely zero character development since One More Day. We have seen little beyond a few snippets of this character reason for being the way they are and that is bad writing. Example; the drunken hook up would have made a better story if Michelle had more depth beyond just being a bitch. Why is she like that? Why didn’t she kick Peter out when they first met? What was her reasoning? What is her background beyond being a lawyer? If there was a little more depth to the character, it could have a different reaction than the current direction.

I do give the writers a hard time because I wanted better stories from them. I wanted to like Amazing Spider-man or I wouldn’t have given it 60 issues. The writers failed. To use the words of friend of mine, this is an epic fail. Oh sure, this will picked apart to just a negative post about Amazing Spider-man, but it isn’t really. It is a clue for those writers that come here to snicker and point at the Deltas. It is clue to how you can possibly bring some of the reader that left to the book. Stop hammering the Parker Luck to death. Start allowing Peter and all the character to grow beyond the sophomoric versions you have now. Stop sticking to the Deltas. Start listening to the complaints about what is happening in the book. You may find out that we are right about a lot of things if you are really honest about it.

The Spider-man Marriage

I am going to repost some of my rants that I did on Crawlspace because it will lead some place...eventually. :D

Today is going to be the Spider-man marriage which ties into the first post on this blog:




Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you my rant about the marriage. It is going to be goodie.

I have really thought long and hard about this particular rant because there are a lot of misconceptions about the marriage made by writers, EIC and fans. Here are the biggest complaints about the marriage:

1. It is unrelateable to younger readers.
2. It takes something away from the story.
3. Writers don’t want write for a married Spider-man.
4. You can tell only so many stories about married Spider-man.
5. I don’t want Mary Jane in every issue.
6. Peter is a loser and the marriage takes that away.
7. Marriage takes away from the fun of the book.
8. What is the difference in a marriage and a committed relationship? It is the same thing.
9. The marriage was forced and rushed.
10. The marriage sucked! The stories sucked!

Those are the ones I see and hear the most often on the web and my LCS. I have argued my points about the marriage over and over again. Let me prefaced with this by saying if the marriage was ended in a story that made sense then I wouldn’t I have problem. The fact, and it is a fact, One More Day was a flying shitfest of a story. It was insulting to the fans and the writers that have worked on the Spider-man titles for last 20 years. That is fact contrary to what Marvel’s Webhead say it did change the makeup of the Marvel Universe and affected the whole Universe. That is another rant for another time.

It is unrelateable to younger readers.

I guess all the younger readers in the world don’t have parents that weren’t/aren’t married. Bastards! Yes, it is that stupid. Just saying that is showing how out touch Joe Quesada is with the readership of Marvel Comics. I guess young readers can relate to drunken hooks ups and sex without love better. That Joe Quesada approved the fact Peter has unprotected sex and that something that should be pushed on young readers. Thank you Joe for making my job as parent real easy, no Spider-man comics will be read in my house. That is real. That is irresponsible to put in a book with high children interest and don’t give this Marvel Adventure crap either. I am not an idiot or a fool. Don’t ever make that mistake about me. In other words, you want to live in a world of sunshine and roses. Fine. I will live in a world that deals with reality.

It takes something away from the story.
Writers don’t want write for a married Spider-man.
You can tell only so many stories about married Spider-man.
I don’t want Mary Jane in every issue.
Peter is a loser and the marriage takes that away.
Marriage takes away from the fun of the book.
The marriage sucked! The stories sucked!

With an exception of last on, those are writer’s and EIC’s complaints. The last one is an result of wrong people writing the book. This is really simple. Don’t want to write for married Spider-man? Then you can’t write for the character! Last thing that the flagship character needs is a professional acting like a whiny fanboy because their stories suck due to lack of caring. It wasn’t the fact the marriage was in the book that caused these problems; it was due to writers and EIC not be able to deal with the situation and taking advantage of it to help make these stories better. Marriage adds drama. Marriage is fun (in a warped kind of way). The only difference between a married Peter Parker and a single one is that he can’t fuck anything that moves. That’s it. Nothing else is different. The real mistake by the writers is having the marriage in every issue. For the love of God, it didn’t have to be part of the story nor did Mary Jane have to be in every issue. Use it when need and do not just throw in there for unknown reasons. Get writers that can draw from their marriage and have them write for the book, or writers that understand what marriage is and let them take care of it.

Peter is not a loser. I hate when they say that. Ranks up there with the cousin story for being one the dumbest things ever said in an interview. Peter is every man. Every man is looking for the right person to share their life with and for them to part of that person’s life. I seriously doubt those that said this has ever read a Spider-man comic book or understand the overall ground work that was done by Stan Lee and company. Peter is the ultimate winner because he does the right thing no matter what the cost. He fights the no-win situations (Firelord). He comes out victorious sometime and like every man he loses sometimes. However, he will eventually win the war. The marriage gave hope to Peter. It gave something to fight for beyond his motto. Time to grow up readers and writers because we do things to help those we love. At least, I hope that is why you do things because you want to be able to help those you love now and in the future.


What is the difference in a marriage and a committed relationship? It is the same thing.


BULLSHIT! A committed relationship is nothing like a marriage because it has an easy out. You can just pack your shit up and leave. No legal ramifications. No proclamation of love in the paper. No committed relationship license is needed. No special ceremony with friends declaring your committed relationship in a committed relationship ceremony. Tell what, for those that are married. Go tell you wife that you just want a committed relationship. Just have an ice bag ready because you will need it after she kicks your balls to your throat. I have nothing against people living together before they get married. In fact, I highly recommend it because that could be seen as a test run for the relationship. Marriage is a legal and public announcement to forsake all others for this one person because they are just that damn special to you. You can say it is the ultimate test of your love for each other to take that step. One more thing, saying something like tells a lot about the person who says it. One, they either are not married or not married a long time. Two, they are a child and don’t know that what women want in a relationship. A married man saying that also tells me that their marriage is doomed because it tells me that they aren’t taking their situation seriously. That fact is that saying is an insult to people who take their marriage seriously and want it to last until death do us part. What I am trying say here is that some people need to get a clue before they open their mouth about things that they don’t have enough experience to say anything about to begin with. Come back to after 16 years marriage, we will talk then about how a committed relationship is the same as marriage.


The marriage was forced and rushed.

Umm..hello? Did you people read any issues before Annual 21? Peter asked Mary Jane to marry him before and she said no. It wasn’t rushed. In fact, there were a couple issues done before the Annual happened that explained why Mary Jane said yes to Peter. Stan wanted this to happen because he knew it was time to move on in the story. We could have the discussion on who really wrote Spider-man, but Stan was a major player in the direction and creation of the core character of Peter Parker. It was time for Peter Parker to grow beyond just being a loner. There were no more stories to be told about Peter’s personal relationships while he is single that hasn’t been told. That is fact. What you are reading now isn’t new or “refreshing”. It is retread territory that has done by better people in the past that cared more about the character and its future. Marriage offered something that Peter being single couldn’t do, and that is hope. Hope for a future without Spider-man. Hope for normalcy. Hope for family. In other words, every man’s dream.

I didn’t get into Mary Jane’s characterization because that is another rant, but I do want to say that Marvel dropped the ball big time with the character. They continued to drop the ball with the character because they are afraid of the character. One last thing, comic should never be like the movie. Movies should be like the comics. Keep that in mind because do we want another Back in Black story?